Environmentalists and National Park Service officials are holding last-minute negotiations to avoid a showdown in court over cattle ranching on Santa Rosa Island. A Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group has threatened to sue the park service, alleging that the Channel Islands National Park, a chain of five islands off the Ventura County coastline, is failing to protect its natural resources. The National Parks and Conservation Assn.

An ambitious plan to protect the Santa Clara River has become bogged down by missed deadlines and the overwhelming task of finding consensus among 25 people with conflicting interests along the river's banks. But amid the sometimes contentious rounds of meetings among farmers, aggregate miners, environmentalists, local officials and regulators, there is hope, even determination, that the plan will succeed.

The clandestine dumping of used motor oil into a storm drain has tainted part of Upper Newport Bay, threatening bird life and triggering a cleanup effort by the state Department of Fish and Game. The oil entered the Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve, where salt marshes are home to hundreds of birds, including some rare species. While state officials cannot yet say what damage the spill might cause, they estimate that as many as 200 to 300 birds might come into contact with the oil.

A proposed $1-million water park expansion at Lake Casitas could endanger wildlife and contribute to traffic congestion at the popular reservoir near Ojai, environmentalists said Thursday. The Casitas Municipal Water District wants to build a waterway, called Lazy River, near an existing one-acre children's water playground at the entrance to the lake, which is off-limits to swimmers.

HANFORD REACH NATIONAL MONUMENT, Wash. -- When wildfires raced through tinder-dry grass and sagebrush on the Hanford Reach National Monument this summer, much of the worry centered on whether flames would reach radioactive waste at the neighboring Hanford nuclear reservation. Now wildlife officials are taking stock of the devastation to the charred monument itself, which stretches along a free-flowing stretch of the Columbia River known for salmon runs, bird habitat and rare plant life. "The No.

A ruptured pipeline three weeks ago that sent 75,000 gallons of oil oozing down the Santa Clara River from Valencia to Ventura County now threatens one of the last three habitats of a tiny endangered fish. The unarmored threespine stickleback has found refuge in three areas of the Santa Clara River. But it is being threatened by the fifth year of drought, an exotic river-clogging plant and a voracious African frog. And now the oil spill has added another danger.

Tossing off earlier grim predictions, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials Tuesday were optimistic that shrubbery and wildlife would recover from damage during the recent fire. "By and large, we believe that the effects of these fires will be negligible in that we hope and expect these areas to return to their original vegetative condition," said Peter Stine, acting field supervisor of the agency's Carlsbad office.

Part of a 10-acre pond and marsh in the Chatsworth Reservoir that serves as a wildlife refuge will be drained to combat a mosquito infestation that has plagued nearby residents, officials said Tuesday.

For the second time in three months, a cadre of golden eagles on Santa Cruz Island has outfoxed a helicopter crew trying to capture them, leaving frustrated wildlife managers to fall back on more traditional trapping methods. The helicopter, aided by 20 spotters on the ground, spent the week chasing the powerful birds across steep ridges, into canyons and along sheer sea cliffs. But whenever the helicopter closed in, the eagles slipped away, ducking for cover beneath trees and ledges.

June 23, 1991 | Carolyn Slaughter, Slaughter is the author of "Dreams of the Kalahari" (Simon & Schuster)

There are people--often from aristocratic and cultured backgrounds--who go to Africa to seek, in the wild and primitive country, a release from the cossetted confines of Europe. What they really seek is the primitive side of their own nature, and very often they find it.